Sophistication of the Heart
by Inkuma the Bewear
Summary: After noticing Lucy's worn out doll, Lola wants to be generous by giving it a new do. But when the former refuses, how far is Lola willing to take it to show that she cares?


**A/N: This is a story based on a promo _alone_ on Nickelodeon's Twitter for the upcoming Loud House bomb this month. It is heavily based on what was given to us prior to the bomb, leading to this unfortunate implication that sparked in my head. This is also not an intent to rip off Tea Tale Heart which is set to air Thursday. I'll also make perfectly clear that it's also not a hate fic. I'm a bit nervous about it since I don't know how this'll go, so I'll go ahead and give this a shot and see what you think. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy the story.**

 **Disclaimer: The Loud House is property of Viacom.**

 _ **OK, here goes!**_

* * *

It was a lovely evening down in the usually quiet old neighborhood of Royal Woods, Michigan. The six year old princess of the house, Lola Loud was busy setting up her plastic table for an upcoming tea party she planned to start in about a few minutes from now. Yep. It was _that_ time again. She had been eager waiting for this for six days. A big smile was expressed all around her young little face with not a single thing she needed to worry about concerning her plans all day long.

She grabbed three of her stuffed animals, placing each one in their own plastic chairs just behind the table. "Well isn't it that time of the week once again, my sophisticated little friends," Lola said. "It's time for this week's tea party!"

What can she say? It was basically her main shtick that she normally does on a regular basis inside the Loud house. It was her thing, it was her passion as a routine. Her sophisticated status as a princess was so clear, it was like completely spotless in her own little kingdom.

She hummed a fitting tune of her choice as she aligned her stuffed animals into the chairs before she pushed them towards the table one by one. "This princess here hopes you guys have some royal enlightenment to spill here at the table tonight," she passed out the tea cups and the plates, carefully aligning them in front of her dolls. "Because what's the point of having a sophisticated tea party in this house without putting in the picture about our current status?" she giggled.

She brought out the scones. "Now, this week's special is definitely going to be a calm one... Chamomile tea with a side of blueberry scones! Fresh from the oven!"

Lola simpered as she looked at her results. Everything seemed to be in ship shape in the black irises of a royal little child. It was astonishing. She felt like today could be possibly one of the best tea parties she's ever hosted in a long while. It was so perfect to the point that it reminded her that the last time she had a tea party this great was when she had to forcefully made her twin sister Lana participate in one along with convincing their family feline pet to join against his will. But this time, she was determined. She squinted her eyelids with a little smirk to express. She wanted this to top all the other times she hosted a tea party right here in the Loud House.

She looked around the room for her chamomile tea with very small success. A seconds passed by before she realized she'd forgotten it somewhere downstairs. "Big dang it!" she uttered as her happy attitude quickly changed to an incensed tone. "Of all the things I could've forgotten for the party, it just _had_ to be the main item you're required to have at a tea party!"

She softly facepalmed as she collected herself for a brief moment as she can't believe she'd let this little mistake of hers happen out of all the possible things. She calmed down enough to casually storm out of her room as she made her way down the stairs.

Before she could set foot into the dining room, she saw someone sitting in front of the television screen in the living room with her stuffy old doll. It was the soft spoken eight year old, Lucy Loud.

She was slightly confused for a brief moment. For once in her life, she had never seen her with any other item to play with other than her favorite Edwin bust that she normally carries around with her in the house. She had her sights fixated on that doll of hers. It looked like it was a complete mess through the eyes of a six year old princess like Lola. She wanted to do something to it. Like maybe, freshen her up or something of the sort. To her, it was so dirty to the point that she could practically throw it into the washer for a good half hour or so. But, it kinda looked like she wouldn't care at the least.

"Isn't this nice? Simply hanging together... watching a good show." Lucy spoke.

Lola had to devise a plan for the doll. She wanted to at least give her doll a little bit of decency just to show how good of a younger sibling she is to her. But she didn't need to worry about that at this hour. Her main objective was more important. She needed to get the tea for the party that starts in a few minutes from now.

The third youngest child of the house stormed into the kitchen to obtain the tea from the kitchen counter. As she most expected, she was stopped right in the middle of her filthy twin sister, covered in mud as usual.

"Hey Lola," Lana said in a happy tone, forcing Lola to slightly jump before she grabbed her objective. "Ya gotta help me setup this awesome mud slide out here!"

This came off as no surprise to the child in pink. Her dirty little antics were to be expected at some point during her weekly events that she hosted every weekend. She looked over to Lana and calmly declined her request.

"Oh, no thanks!" she said. "You know my routine, tea parties every Saturday evening!"

Lana reacted differently like this was the first time she responded to her like that. "Oh..." But she did lighten up soon after like she always does like she didn't care what anybody said. "That's alright! I'll show ya the ropes when it's just about done! I'll even get our old pal Charles to help test it out for me soon after! Oh, and before I go..."

She dug into her pockets and pulled out a mud cake as she kindly offered one to her twin sister. "Mud cake?"

"Gross!" Lola reacted, before using a softer response a second later. "I mean... no thanks!"

Lana still brushed it off like it was not a big deal before she headed back outside. "I'll save it for our birthdays, which is three weeks away!"

Lola promptly moaned as she was left alone in the kitchen. She grabbed her tea off the counter and exited the kitchen interior.

Her expression was entirely blank now as she stopped to notice that Lucy wasn't in the living room anymore. Instead, it was the teenage siblings of the house, Lynn, Luan, Luna, Leni, and Lori. They were busy chatting it up as they were watching a rerun of last week's Dream Boat episode as the new one was a quarter hour away from premiering on the television screens worldwide.

She wondered where the goth child was now. She had a feeling she might be upstairs in her room doing her usual habits as always. She went back upstairs into her bedroom as she prepared herself to pour some tea into her tea cups for her stuffed animals. Throughout the entire duration of filling up her cups, she told them about the doll Lucy had on her like it was a very important news flash.

"So there was this doll I saw earlier today, and dare I say... she looked highly unattractive to me." she said. "Her appearance looked soooo uncanny, I can't even bear to describe it in more detail."

Lola sat quiet for a good short period of time before she put her earlobe toward one of her stuffed animals as if they had something to say about her situation.

She scoffed. "Oh, don't get me started with that frizzy hair of hers. It was downright atrocious!"

She decided to compare the doll with another thing she had on her mind all while she squinted her eyes. "I mean, even Luna being portrayed as a _lamp_ could top her in terms of fashion and politeness."

She lifted her arms to her ear again as she listened to another one of her stuffed animals. It was like someone was giving her an interesting suggestion filled with good potential regarding the doll in question. "What's that?" she said.

She listened in again that lasted for seconds before an idea was handed to her in almost an instant. "I should give her a makeover! Royalty style!"

The six year old took a good sip of her tea before she gladly praised her stuffed animals to a suggestive well thought out. "That's brilliant! A big toast to a interesting idea spilled here at table, lads. Tonight, we make our move."

She softly tapped her fingers on the table as if she was planning to do something very risky. But in this case, she was. She wanted to at least do something very nice for one of her older siblings, simply because. It's what family is for in this house. No matter what she had to do, whether by begging, pleading, or even taking things by force into her own childish hands. She had to make something good happen in this house. Even if she had to resort to such drastic measures to get the job done.

* * *

By the time the tea party of the week was all wrapped up she opened the door to Lynn Jr. and Lucy's room. She took the time to scope out her surroundings for a good brief moment before she made her move inside the bedroom, leaving the door cracked from behind.

She infiltrated the left side, which happened to be Lucy's side of the room. She spent a good amount of seconds looking for one thing, her doll. The first place she started to inspect was her bed. To no avail, she stripped off the blanket. There was not a doll in sight if her eyes, but there was a book with a certain princess pony on the front cover.

Horror and disgust filled the child. "Ew!"

She made a move to the goth kid's desk. She pulled open both drawers from bottom to top. The doll was still nowhere to be found.

My gosh. Lola was getting a little scowl painted across her face. Anxiety filled her at the same time, worrying she may not be able to find it without having Lucy find out she was invading her room. She softly growled knowing she's wasted a precious half a minute looking for what she needs to take care of her business.

She grew determined as she scratched her head. "Now, if I were a young, but strange goth kid hiding something real valuable, where would I happen to set it?"

Lola's sights grew fixated at Lucy's coffin at the front of her bed. Could it be stashed somewhere in the container? What if it wasn't in there as well? There is a possibility that it could go either way for the young child. But she'll never know for sure unless she took a good few seconds of her time to check.

Curiosity filled Lola. She walked over to the goth child's cover before she got a tight grip of the cover. She lifted it up to reveal a whole lot of personal items of hers laying right there inside the container. On top of them all was the doll she was desperately looking for. In the eyes of a royal princess of the Loud house, it was all worn out to the point it could eventually tear open.

"Geez!" Lola reacted before she picked up the doll. "I mean... you poor thing!"

Lola was just a bit sympathetic that her doll was in the state it's currently in now. But now that she has the doll on herself, it was about time for the six year old child to do something graceful, even the eight year old goth couldn't help but congratulate her for her sweet generosity.

As she was about to approach the bedroom door, she got a little surprise she wasn't expecting to happen at all.

 _WHAM!_

The door came busting open, with a concerned Lucy standing there outside of her room, ready to call it a night. Her sudden appearance influenced Lola to scream and jump off her feet for about an inch off the carpet floorboards. It caught her completely off guard. She had absolutely no idea what to do from this point onward.

Lucy confronted Lola. "What do you think you're doing?"

Horror and stutters ensued Lola. "Ohhhhhhh... I don't... know..." she nervously uttered. "What makes you think I'm doing something wrong?"

"What is my doll doing in the palms of your hands..?" Lucy's curiosity sparked. She crept closer to Lola before the latter took a few steps away from the goth kid, all the while she calmly told the child "Please. Put the doll... back in the coffin."

Lola clearly hesitated. She clearly wanted to do something nice for her sister. But because of her sudden appearance out of nowhere, her plan quickly went south. She had to improvise on what she needed to do next. Her chance of being generous to the family is clearly at stake, especially for Lucy.

She stood her ground. "Come on Lucy, hear me out. I wanna do you a huge favor."

"Just put my doll back in the coffin." Lucy asked as nicely as she could.

"But you don't understand. Your doll here's all worn out and... old!" Lola rebutted. "Don't you want her to look good and refreshing?"

Lucy was inches away from Lola now. She grabbed a hold of her doll as she so desperately attempted to retrieve it back from the young pageant girl. "No Lola," she said as she pulled the doll away from her. "I'm afraid you don't understand. This is my doll, and you have no permission from me to play with it."

"But Lucy..."

"No buts, dear Lola." Lucy sternly interrupted. "You can't play with it."

Lola's eyes widened up as if they started to become innocent little puppy eyes. She was devastated. There was no chance of her making a good deed happen in the house anytime tonight. But, given her usual status and her unique personality around the Loud family, she'll always come up with ways to make things work out for her, no matter what she has to do to achieve her little mission.

Lucy stepped inside her coffin. "Now if you don't mind, I would like to get started with my dead nap for the night."

"Um, it's only eight o'clock." Lola reminded the goth child.

Lucy sighed. "Whatever." She laid all the way down, resting in her roomy coffin with her doll resting just beside her.

Lola scowled at her sleeping peacefully as if she was in her own little wonderland. Who knew what she would be dreaming about at this hour? Insane little rituals? Blood oranges? Ponies prancing through a field of flowers?

She didn't care about any of that. She had her sights fixated on her doll again as she thought to herself. "What is with her being so selfish with her doll all of a sudden? I mean, she clearly couldn't even hear me out when I was only trying to do something she'll gladly thank me for. I really wish I could just..."

Something got to her head. "I could just... tear her to pieces! But I can't do that since she's already-"

It was at this precise moment that she just hatched up the perfect alternative to her little plan. She looked at a sleeping Lucy one last time for several amounts of seconds before she did the one thing she didn't think she had to do. She was willing to go through any amount of risks that plan of hers had to throw. She really had to do this, for her, even for the sake of Lucy and her worn out doll.

She sneered as her sights was locked on the goth child. She had one hand on the cover, the other on her doll. It was time for the eight year old to get a little surprise coming to her from one of her younger siblings, two years younger than she is.

She yanked the doll out of her coffin, catching Lucy off guard as she lifted her head up. The child quickly slammed the cover of Lucy's coffin completely shut as if it were sealed for the final time, unknowingly knocking her unconscious.

"I'm sorry, Lucy. But I am doing this for you," Lola said as if she were keeping a promise. "In the name of generosity and showing how much I care!"

She calmly dragged her coffin outside of her and Lynn Jr.'s bedroom before she closed their bedroom door from behind.

* * *

It was dark outside of the house in the neighbor of Royal Woods. There happened to be a very light drizzle that showered down on the princess child of the Loud family. She was dressed in her long pink hoodie as if she was about to proceed into doing a robbery, or simply doing a workout just so she can feel some burn. She could use the latter as an excuse if she was ever caught in the act without the coffin to ease the tension she had in her. Lola had to make this quick and get it over with before that alternative plan of hers started to escalate downhill.

She dragged Lucy's black coffin outside of the house from the kitchen door as she slowly approached the garage with each tug on the container. Although she was a bit surprised that nobody seemed to notice her partaking in her twisted little plan that was forced to take a turn out of complete nowhere as if it was some kind of coincidence. There was a good chance that the five teenagers were too hooked on catching the new episode plus the added chatter could have drowned out the noises Lola was making as she dragged the coffin to the kitchen.

She was a little confused when that unexpected event happened right in front of her. What were the chances of her not getting caught by those teenage girls? Or Lincoln, Lana, Lisa or Lily? She already knows that Lily would be asleep at this time of night. She also thought they were more observant with their surroundings. With all the noticeable sounds the six year old made would've been just enough to at least take their irises off of that television screen for a second or two. But no matter.

Lola made her way to the garage. "I must bury her." she uttered. She looked around the interior until she decided to settle with a shovel to finish up the job. It was a very sturdy one, very few specks of dirt left behind on the surface, and it looked like it had been used only once or twice. It was the perfect choice that satisfied the mind of a young little princess. She grabbed the middleweight weapon as she headed back out into the light rainy outdoors next to Lucy's coffin.

She started digging. It was starting to get very tense for her. She actually couldn't believe she had to resort to something like this just to do her goth sibling a favor. But then again, she still wanted to prove that she's a generous enough sibling to impress her with what kinds of wonderful magic she could do.

Deep down inside her sweet little soul was the pure gold of fear. It may not have to turn out this way, but what else could she do since she got caught in the act of stealing her doll? What was going on in her dysfunctional little mind that escalated down to this?

There could have been another way that seemed less disproportionate than her current alternative plan. But to her, no matter what happens throughout the process, she was willing to take on the risks her plan had to throw whether she expected them or not.

She was six feet into the soil now. Her deed was almost done for the night as she hopped up out of that deep hole she dug. She wiped off her forehead with the clean part of her gloves before she got a good grip on the side of her coffin. She thought to herself on how she would help polish up the doll that belonged to the eight year old goth child as she pulled the container into the ground.

Could she be satisfied with a brand new do? Maybe it could be the attire she needed more? She'll have more than enough time to think of a legit style to wear right after she gets back inside the house.

She began filling the hole back up with the coffin still inside. Though she was honestly a little surprised. There was not a single Loud sibling in the house that even noticed that she was currently outdoors in the dim-lit backyard. In her twisted state of mind, things were turning out surprisingly well.

The hole was completely filled back up again. Lola sighed. "I really wish I didn't have to do this. But she left me without a choice." she said.

Lola made her way to the back porch as that lead her to the back of the kitchen. She only stopped midway to her destination due to noticing a very shocked Charles filled with absolute horror next to his doghouse. The pup's eyes widened quick as he looked deeply at her face as if he witnessed the child commit a horrifying crime. His legs shook almost vigorously as he was on the verge of wetting himself on the grass out of fear that he might be the child's next victim.

Lola squinted her devious little eyelids as she stared menacingly at the dog that may have witnessed her doings. "You didn't see anything..." she said to him before she kept on walking as she would eventually ascend a small flight of stairs before she entered inside the kitchen interior.

The dog was shaking now. He was real scared that a sweet six year old out of all of the siblings in the family would stoop down to something this cruel. His ears drooped all the way down before he hid back into his doghouse as he whimpered in great fear.

Lola came back outside as she had forgotten to get rid of the shovel. She threw it over to the side of the porch before she went back inside.

The sneaky child scoped her surroundings out before she infiltrated the living room back upstairs to Lynn Jr. and Lucy's room. At first, nobody in the interior seemed to take notice that Lola was slightly moist in her lengthy hoodie. They were all chatting as they were too fixated on the newest episode of Dream Boat premiering right on the rectangular television screen. As the child was a couple stairs up heading towards the hallway, the eldest of the siblings managed to notice her. The sound of the stairs seemed to have caught her attention where Lola least expected it.

"Lola, what are you doing?" Lori asked as it ensued her teenage curiosity.

Lola was real quick to rebuttal with a simple lie to spit out. "Uh, I was outside working out?"

"...At eight thirty at night?"

The child nervously smirked. "Yeah, tell that to a military. Now, I don't have time for any more questions. I'm gonna go change!" she continued to ascend up the stairs until she finally arrived right at the doorway of the athlete and goth's room.

Her plan went off without a hitch. Despite her fear deep down, she was surprised that her idea all went according to plan without any noticeable flaws throughout her entire procedure. In the mind of a six year old princess of the family, she had nothing to worry about.

For now.

Lola looked inside. The first thing she noticed inside the dark room was the doll. She kindly smiled as she saw it hadn't moved at all while she was burying the child outside.

"Perfect," she said as she crept closer to the doll with every small step she took. "Now that she's out of the way, you and I are gonna have a good time together now!"

She picked the doll up from the carpet floor as she slightly scratched her chin, wondering what to do with it first. She was pretty much torn between fixing her hair up or providing the inanimate object some brand new wardrobe. But by the looks of it as she looked at the toy for a few seconds, it could use a little bit of soap and water.

"But first, we should probably get you all cleaned up," she said with a subtle little smirk. "You'll look as good as new when I'm done with you."

She swiftly headed out into the hallway and into the bathroom, locking it from the inside. As she was inches away from the sink, she twisted one of the faucets as clear water ran through the tap. But first, she had to strip the doll of whatever she's currently wearing at the time.

This was deliberately one of the first steps of the child's mischievous good deed. In her mind, it was like total cakewalk to her so far. There was absolutely nothing hard about taking care of a doll like hers. She was clearly an expert to any type of fashion tastes as if it was her thing. That shouldn't come off as a surprise to anybody at all in the first place. She was deliberately _known_ for her sophisticated lifestyle in this household as well as her spoiled brat status with every member of the family, except there was a time where for once in her life, she wasn't uncouth. But no matter.

She placed the doll under all the running water as it would sooner or later wash off most of the filthy content off. She hummed as the very next thing she did was lather the object with a good amount of suds. It was slowly becoming more clean, albeit more fresher now than it was way before.

A smile ensued for the six year old child. "My my, aren't you looking better than you used to be now!"

She put the doll back under the running water now. The suds were quickly being washed away as the child gyrated the toy around. She made sure there wasn't a single speck of suds remaining on it right before the door came knocking. Somebody was really desperate to use a toilet right this second.

"Hey! Hurry up in there! I gotta go!" yelled Lynn Jr. from the other side of the door.

Lola sighed if she was currently being annoyed by something she would rather not partake in. "If you really gotta go, tinkle in that bucket Lana keeps in my room!" she responded, making Lynn groan as if she was real constipated.

She was alone once again as she suddenly questioned Lana's bathroom habit. "Although I don't know why she never empties that thing. Or a better question would be, _why_ she keeps it in our room just outright disgusts me in all kinds of ways."

She continued what she was in just before she was interrupted by the teenage athlete. She observed the results of the doll. It turned out to be fresh, and not as worn out as it looked like before. The first step of reworking a doll was complete for her now.

"There, spic and span." Lola confidently said before the door came knocking once again, this time a bit louder than the previous. To Lola's surprise, she thought Lynn Jr. hadn't relieved herself in the bucket. She simply stated to the athlete on the other side. "Hold on, Lynn! I'll be on my way out in a couple of seconds!"

She casually grabbed a towel off a rack and wrapped it around the doll. The drying was in process now as she opened the door as quickly as she could. It wasn't Lynn at the door now. It turned out to be Lincoln, waiting at the door as his legs were completely crossed like a beaver dam trying so hard not to burst.

"Hi Lola! No time, I gotta go!" the only boy in the house said. He quickly ran inside the bathroom as he casually shoved Lola out into the hallway. He closed the door as he soon locked it from the inside before he sighed in great relief.

Disgust ensued Lola as she got an ear full of tinkling noises from the pre-teenage boy. "Geez, Lincoln. Relieve yourself less louder than that. That's clearly not a good look on you!"

"Whatever!" Lincoln shouted.

She entered her bedroom. It was time to proceed to step two of her plan, and that was about wardrobe. She had all this time to figure out what outfits she could use for the doll. As it turns out, she was a little stumped. She had no idea what would look good on a doll like that. But she'll find a way. Anything can be possible the more she thought about it.

Lola unwrapped the towel, extracting the doll from inside before she calmly examined it once again. "I had an interesting feeling that some royal garb would look so perfect on you." she thought to herself. As she continued to stare directly at the doll, she thought about Lucy more. She thought it'll make Lucy happy if her doll had such attire. But as much as she wanted to go with the royalty theme of fashion, she had to change it up a bit just for the goth child. "But this is for Lucy, not for me. I'm gonna have to do something completely different with you."

She continued to think to herself as she went to her side of the room. She thoroughly examined her bed as she attempted to find anything she had on her that will fit the tone of Lucy's clean doll. She threw her stuffed animals around the place looking for that one artifact of clothing that'll be the perfect little match for it. She searched for a couple more seconds, until it was simply resting, right there in front of her.

It was a simple maid outfit, all black and white. Lola thought to herself as she would imagine the accurate results on how it would look on the toy. She had a good feeling that it would be the right choice. In her mind, it looked like it would turn out very well. She wouldn't know that for sure until she equipped the wardrobe onto the doll.

"Ok, Lola, I'm only doing this for her, and for her only. No matter what anyone else thinks." she reminded herself.

It all came down to an unexpected, horrifying pause as one of the siblings asked one simple question for somebody in the house to answer. The child's heart jumped with her irises shrunken down as these four words alone read the lips of one of the siblings from outside of her room.

"Has anybody seen Lucy?"

* * *

"Dang it! I knew this was bound to come up sooner or later!"

Lola was mortified now. She had a feeling a question like that would arise sooner or later in the night. But she never thought that it would happen this quickly. Her heart started to beat faster as she was on the verge of hyperventilating as if she were about to lose it right then and there. Could somebody be on to her? No matter what, there was only one way for her to find out.

She had to play it cool. Maybe if she pretended she never knew anything about Lucy's whereabouts, nobody in the house would seem to bat an eye. She took a couple of deep breaths in hopes to calm her nerves for a bit as she proceeded to her bedroom door.

She took a quick little peek. She noticed her nine siblings crowded in the hallway as they all questioned and wondered where Lucy was. Their worries seemed to get the better of them overtime as their caring hearts started pumping at a hundred beats a minute. Something must have happened to her. The first thing somebody noticed in the household was that her coffin was missing.

Could it be that she needed some time being isolated from her ten siblings? Is she trying to revamp her coffin to make it look more appealing for her heart's content? Questions ensued for them all as the siblings recalled the last time seeing the goth child.

"Are you guys sure you don't think she's a ghost?" Leni said out of complete fear.

"Where do you think she could be?" Lincoln asked. "I really wanted to ask her a couple questions for an assignment I have to finish up for tomorrow!"

Lori answered the boy without a show of hesitation. "The last time I saw her today was when she headed back up to her room when we were about to catch the newest episode of Dream Boat!"

"Same here, dude!" Luna added.

Lori reminded everybody of the program on the television as if it was the only thing they were desperate to catch with their own eyes. "You also might wanna hurry this up, because the new Dream Boat's on commercial break at the moment and we literally have less than three minutes before it airs the latter half of the episode."

"I was outside, playing with Charles with a mud slide I made." Lana said.

"Do you think Lola knows where she is?" Lincoln asked.

"I don't know! The last thing she said was that she needed to partake in her tea party like she does every weekend!"

Lola roamed out into the hallway, facing her siblings as she simply confirmed the response that the tomboy gave to the middle child. "She's right!" she added. "I haven't the foggiest idea where she could be at this hour. This is devastating news!"

Small gasps and concerns filled up the hallway. "You bet it is!" Lincoln reiterated. "What are we gonna do? Luce could be anywhere by now!"

Lori stepped in as she answered her brother's question as Lola went back inside her room. Her head peeked out to see what they were planning to do next. "Well, the obvious answer to that question of yours would be to let's split up and look for her!"

Everyone but Lola casually nodded in agreement. The princess' heart jumped a bit as she heard the eldest sibling answer the boy. She put her head back inside her bedroom. Those nerves of hers grew more anxious by the second as she closed her bedroom door as quietly as she could before locking her door.

She had no idea what to do from there. She could just come clean about what she did and get it all over and done with. But no. She wasn't planning on going down that road just yet. Although she was just trying to do something nice for Lucy by remodeling her doll up for her. In her mind, she didn't mean for her plan to blow way out of proportion. Then again, she didn't have a choice. When she least expected it to happen, there was some bit of hope that struck for her as Lori pointed out something about Dream Boat.

"But we have an episode to catch! See y'all later!"

Lincoln and Lana expressed a soft scowl on their faces as she said that. "You can't be serious." Lincoln said.

"Our sister is missing somewhere in this house and you decide to watch a new episode of Dream Boat over finding her?" Lana added. "How weak!"

"Can't you record it or something and then watch it later?"

"No time!" Luna said as she headed back downstairs to the couch.

"The episode's coming back on!" Leni added, following Luna there as well as Lynn and Luan.

Lori followed the rest of the girls downstairs as well. She stopped halfway down to tell Lincoln and Lana some instructions while they catch the rest of the episode. "You guys look for her." she said before she continued to walk downstairs. "We'll help look for her once this goes off!"

The two kids sighed. "I'm gonna look around upstairs," Lincoln stated. "You check downstairs and the basement."

Lana agreed. "Got it!" The six year old tomboy made his way downstairs as the middle male child started his search in the hallway.

The eighth youngest of the Louds was in the kitchen now. She casually opened the door that led down to the basement. It was almost pitch black down there, to the point where she almost wanted to bail out and get her older brother Lincoln to go down there for her. She gulped before she took one single step down the stairs.

"We meet again." Lana thought to herself. She closed her eyes for a brief moment to try and get an ability to see in to the dark depths of the basement. Out of nowhere, she heard a bit of whining coming from the doggy door of the kitchen.

She opened up her eyes and looked behind her. It was the family dog, Charles. He looked like he was horribly frightened by something or someone. His show of behavior influenced the filth loving child to grow concerned.

"Aw Charles, what's wrong?" she asked the white canine. The dog whined more as he ensured the child to follow him. Lana almost immediately thought that he may have a lead to where Lucy could be. As the scared little dog made his way outside through the doggy door, Lana followed him outside.

She opened the kitchen door. "Hold on Charles. I'm coming!" she uttered before she exited the house, closing the door from behind.

* * *

The princess approached Lucy's doll with a dress to put her in. "Let's get you in this nice little outfit I found for you!" Lola said as she equipped the black maid outfit onto Lucy's doll. "I'm really hoping that it totally fits your style."

And so it does. The result looked nice in the eyes of a sophisticated little child like Lola Loud herself. She's surprised that it looked better on a doll like that as opposed to her stuffed animals. Satisfaction befelled the child the more she thought about it. She even gave off a little smile before she set it down in a plastic chair.

"Cute!" she complimented. "Now all that you need now is a brand new do!"

Lola thought to herself as she scratched her chin. She had to figure out the perfect design for her hair. What if she had something white? That wouldn't do well for her desire. Maybe she should go for something a bit dark instead? It is for the goth child after all.

"Let me look around my room and see if I can't find a wig for that head of yours..." she softly said. The six year old child scoped around her side of her bedroom filled with her stuffed toys. She seemed rather fixated on her desk as she walked towards it. There may be something in there that could fit the tone of the doll.

Lola prepared herself to open her drawers. "If what I say happens to be true, then I'll have no choice but to use a nice little alternative I have to dark colored hair."

What could her alternate plan be for hair? Could it be to use the family cat's fur as a intriguing but original substitute? Maybe it was to use some of Lucy's hair? It couldn't be the latter due to her burying the child under pounds of soil. Had she ever thought about the child's health or whatnot? However long she had been unwillingly buried underneath pounds of dirt, she may have suffocated to death by now. And yet, she has never shown off any type of remorse for her.

This was all just to prove that she had a good side. Yet she had to take out one of her older siblings to reach that point of hers. Sooner or later, what she had to do would all come back to haunt her eventually. Possibly even later on tonight, but she had yet to find out about it at this moment.

Lincoln was still roaming around the bedrooms upstairs, looking for Lucy to no avail. She was nowhere to be found up there. The boy sighed as he finished checking out the last room. Clearly, he had no plans of giving up just yet. It only took him around a little less than five minutes just to search around the second floor of the house. He started to suspect she could be somewhere downstairs, maybe even in the basement.

The middle child quickly walked downstairs. He noticed that the television was still airing the latter half of a new episode of Dream Boat. The teenagers were chatting it up about their speculations on what would happen in the next few minutes. They were really focused on that episode. None of them seemed to pay any attention to the boy.

Lincoln rolled his eyes before he gave the girls a quick update on the search for the goth child. "Lucy isn't upstairs!" he said as his concerns built up.

"Well go check down in the basement or something!" Lori suggested. "She might be somewhere in there!"

Lincoln softly smiled as he was just about to go to the exact destination that read his eldest sister's lips. "I was just about to say that, but thanks!"

"Quiet, Lincoln!" Leni said to him before he went into the kitchen. "This is the part we've been waiting for!"

Outside in the backyard, Lana was still trying to figure out what Charles was trying to tell her. She followed him around as the anxious white pup would soon lead the filth loving tomboy to a pile of dirt. He sat right next to it as the child continued to look at him in confusion as if the two were having a staring contest.

She questioned the fearful animal. "Alright Charles, what is it? Why are you acting so scared? You're a dog! You're not supposed to be afraid of anything!"

Charles looked blankly at the child. Her blabbering influenced the pup to grow irritated with the kid as he softly facepalmed himself. He sluggishly shook his head horizontally as his paw slid down his face. Lana looked confused now. She thought something was terrorizing the poor animal. Really, he saw something terrible outside and he needed to alert somebody in the house. She tried to reinterpret what the dog was trying to tell him as he simply pointed at the pile of dirt next to him.

Lana hesitated for a bit as she figured what he really meant the entire time. "Huh? You think there's something under that pile of dirt?"

The dog quickly shook his head vertically. That was what Charles wanted the child to figure out. He was just like the dog that solved mysteries through a series of unfortunate mishaps. There could be something under there that might help solve the case they have been trying to figure out for about a little more than a half hour now.

The tomboy was convinced. "Oh," she uttered. "Well, let's see what's under here then." She walked over to the pile of dirt and started to dig in. Charles decided to join in with the kid a few seconds later as he figured she would've needed some assistance either way. She was curious as to what was under that pile of dirt. What she didn't know was that she was a few feet of dirt away from finding that missing family member of the house.

They both dug for seconds nonstop until they felt something hard underneath that pile. As she wiped off some of the dirt, she noticed something black. There was also on symbol on top of the container. Lana gasped as she noticed the details. It was Lucy's coffin, without a doubt. She immediately thought to herself. Could Lucy be inside? Is she going to be okay? There was one way for the filthy tomboy of the house to find out.

She had to be quick though. Time was running out before Lucy might have ran out of air from being buried for too long. She pulled out the coffin with the help of Charles pulling on her overalls as it would soon break free from all the dirt under the ground. The next thing she did was open up the coffin.

There she lay, motionless inside her coffin. Lana and Charles' eyes widened as they gazed upon the goth child. The dog whined as if they didn't manage to get her out in time.

"Lucy?" Lana called out to her. "Are ya alright? Can ya hear me..."

She did not answer, nor wake up for that matter. Silence befelled the two kids as the tomboy almost began shedding a single tear...

* * *

There was nothing more mortifying than a child sadly gazing upon a motionless goth kid laying in her coffin. It was definitely a sad moment for Lana, along with the family dog. He missed her already from summoning spirits together and weird stuff she loved to do with the rest of the pets. Tears were slowly streaming down the kid's face as she continued to look at her. Charles couldn't help but whine more, believing that the family has lost one child too soon, especially at such a young age. There wasn't anything they could do to get her to wake back up one more time.

When they didn't expect it, Lucy spoke to them like somebody was sneaking up behind an unsuspecting human being. "Hello." she said in her usual gloomy voice.

Lana jumped back a couple inches. Charles did the exact same as this came off as a surprise towards the two shocked characters. Lucy sat bolt upright, relieved that she was free from her coffin. She subtly smiled as she noticed the happy filthy loving tomboy and the family dog of the house.

Lana rushed over to Lucy and gave her a hug. "You're alive!" she said. "Thank goodness." The white dog happily wagged his tail in flair as he was happy that the goth child wasn't ready to ascend into the skies at this time.

"Yeah. Thank goodness is very much an accurate reaction to this sudden surprise." Lucy replied to the tomboy. "Somebody must have buried me while I was defenselessly knocked out cold in my coffin like a withering black rose garden."

"Jeez! Do you know who could've done such a thing?" Lana asked through her shear curiosity.

Lucy tried to think as hard as she could. The goth child could rarely remember what happened in the past hour or so due to being knocked out. There was a slight possibility she might not have remembered. Her memory seemed like it was as corrupted as a broken data file.

Charles growled a few seconds after as he menacingly glared right at the top half of the house. His mean response sounded like he may have a lead as to what happened in this situation.

Lana looked over to Charles. "What is it Charles? Ya got any leads?"

He barked only once in response to the tomboy. The canine was in fact, the only witness during the time of the act as he saw Lola walking back inside with a hoodie and a shovel. Although he was afraid of the mud lover's twin when they unfortunately crossed paths earlier in the night, he was doing what he knows is right. He was acting like the morality pet in this crazy situation.

Charles went inside the kitchen through the doggy door. Lana followed the dog inside the house with Lucy walking behind the two as she followed them. Their curiosity and determination to put a stop to whatever Lola was doing was coming to a close. It was a bit intense for the kids, but at least Lucy wasn't actually dead. Thank goodness for that.

In the living room, the newest episode of Dream Boat was about to come to a close before it rolled the end credits. The teenage Loud siblings were still talking it out as to who they were planning to throw overboard. Arguments started to arise as they were getting to the results. Until out of complete nowhere, they were surprised when one of the characters on the television screen decided to intervene.

 _"Hey you! Behind the TV screen! Stop that!"_

The teenagers froze in the middle of their fighting as they all stared at the television. The ditz of the family was extremely confused from this point as if the people behind the TV screen can see everything they're doing.

"Did our... TV just talk to us?" Leni asked.

"No Leni." Lynn answered. "This clearly isn't an interactive show."

Nevertheless, the girls were ready to hear the outcome of the new episode of Dream Boat. As the deets were given to then through the television screen, the five girls heard Charles' barking drowning out some of the dialogue. This managed to torment the athlete of the house by a small fraction as she turned to Lana as she stared at her menacingly.

"Lana, what the heck is Charles up to now?" she asked.

"Sorry! No time!" Lana replied back. "He knows where Lucy was and now he's leading us to the caper!"

The tomboy quickly followed the dog upstairs as Lucy walked into the living room without warning. Unsurprisingly, no one in the interior seemed to suspect that she was near her siblings once again.

"Boo." she said, much to everyone's surprised reaction. The teens all reacted differently, panicking as if they were getting a real life jumpscare. They stared at the goth child like they've never met before in a long while. They were surprised to see her standing right there in front of their own points of view.

"Lucy, you're still here!" Luan said.

"Yeah, thank goodness." Lori added.

"We all thought you were gone dude!" Luna added as she sighed in relief.

"I was never actually gone," Lucy stated. "Someone must have buried me six feet under while I was knocked out cold."

"Well, who do you think would do something like that?" Lynn asked.

"I think I might have an idea to answer that question of yours..." Lucy replied.

* * *

Lola was still in her bedroom, putting the finishing touches on Lucy's old doll. She was satisfied of the final output of her good work. Her style was so gosh darn good that it's almost like she wanted to take photos of the doll. To her it would fit extremely well in a magazine of some sort. She truly had a thing for fashion. Her hard efforts she put into the doll was something truly astonishing in the eyes of a young child.

"Alright! It would seem to me that my work here is absolutely astonishing." she spat happily. "All that's left really is the get this doll back into Lucy's room!"

She walked her way to the door of her bedroom, not knowing that she was about to be caught in a crossfire on the other side. As long as she didn't think anybody would find Lucy in the backyard, she was completely safe. She did have some heart in her deep down. Despite having to get rid of Lucy to do her deed, she wouldn't deliberately intend to kill her or anything. She would have planned to dig her coffin back up as soon as she was done with the doll. Unbeknownst to her, the goth child was safe and sound.

"Gosh, I can't believe this plan just about went off without a hitch! I got Lucy's doll a sophisticated new look and nobody seemed to have bat an-"

BANG!

It was that unexpected loud noise the omitted from nowhere that caught the six year old completely off her guard. The door came bursting open all the way, revealing Lucy menacingly standing there in front of the doorway with a surprised Lana and an enraged Charles standing just behind her, completely unfazed as to what was happening. Lola jumped up an inch. She literally didn't see anything like this coming back to her at all.

It was getting intense like a complete standoff between two rivals. There was nothing the pageant child could do now. She was finally caught at the end of her plan. A single sweat drop came streaming down her face as she took a step back away from Lucy.

"Lucy?!" she nervously uttered.

"Yes. That is correct." Lucy answered. She was prepared to confront her for what she had to do as she took a few steps forward towards the spoiled little brat. "Stealing my doll, and burying me underneath the soil... Why did you have to do all of this?"

Lola stuttered as her anxiety built up at it's highest capacity. She tried her absolute best to come up with a good yet reasonable excuses for what she had to do. Depending on the way she was fidgeting around in the goth's vision, she could easily tell through her ruse.

"Let me explain! All I was trying to do was make some good deeds by doing something nice for you so I can prove to this family that I'm not as spoiled you guys think I might be. But you just had to refuse to let me play with her. I mean, I wish I didn't have to resort to drastic measures just to prove my point but you left me with no other choice. But for that I have the need to personally apologize. I'm sorry."

Lucy retaliated right on the spot as Lana grew into more shock. "...But still, you had no right to take any of my possessions without my approval. Even if you're trying to do something nice for someone in the sake of redeeming your status, you still have to embed in your mind that when I say you can't play with it, I really mean _you can't play with it_."

"Wait a sec. Ya seriously stole from Lucy?" Lana asked. "But... why?"

"Sigh." Lucy uttered.

Lola groaned. "We just went over that, you filth lover."

Lana smirked. "You're not wrong about that!"

Lucy turned back to Lola now. All she wanted from this point was her doll. She was quick to notice that it wasn't the same old doll that she had earlier in the day. The goth child had no idea what to say. Her doll looked a whole lot better than before. It's almost like she was impressed with what Lola had to do with it. Because of she had to do to escalate to this, she didn't deserve to know how she really felt about the sudden change in the doll's appearance.

"Gasp. What have you done with my doll..?" Lucy said.

Despite her nerves, Lola was pretty quick to jump to an answer to Lucy's concerning question. "I uh... decided to give her a nice little makeover."

Lucy extended her arms out. "Give her to me..."

Lola looked down at the doll for about a second or two. She quietly exhaled through her mouth before she handed the inanimate object back to its rightful owner. As Lucy started to examine the changes to her old doll. The makeover consisted to look sophisticated but goth-like at the same time. The six year old pageant rubbed her hands together as if her nervousness or that anxiety of hers was quickly overcoming her. She thought about how a gothic style of fashion like that was sure to leave at least an impression on the eight year old child. But it all came down to this situation, happening right now in her bedroom.

Lucy was finished examining her doll now. "Well..." she spat. Silence took over for a good five or so seconds before it was inevitably broken.

"What?" Lola and Lana said simultaneously before Lucy resumed her dialogue.

"The new style you gave her is pretty accurate. It's pretty nice." she honestly commented. "But I'm still mad."

"Oh." Lola reacted.

"You expected me to live down the fact that you had to resort to almost taking me out of the game of life in order to do something nice for me?"

Lola quietly stood there. She had no idea what else to say after that piercing question from the goth child. She threw her head down for everything that she's done today.

"That was pretty uncalled for, Lola." Lana stated with her arms crossed. Charles shook his head in disappointment as he glared right in Lola's face with a low growl before he left the hallway to do whatever he wanted to do along with Lana following him close behind. Lucy left the bedroom quietly, leaving Lola alone to think about what she has done.

The door slammed shut. Quietness filled Lola as she continued to stand in the same exact spot for more than ten seconds. At least she was satisfied with how she recreated the doll's appearance for Lucy. As long as the goth child was impressed with the outcome of her marvelous work, she was completely okay with it.

"Eh, at least I did something good." she shrugged as she brushed it all off before she headed towards her bed for the night.

* * *

Lucy was back in her bedroom once again. She quietly set her revamped doll on her bed as she simply sighed.

"Well, this has been one heck of a night." she said to her doll. "I really do have to give her credit for this interesting makeover though. These details she added to you are beautiful."

She smiled at the doll. She was honestly impressed with Lola's work in her fashion. She was sure enough that the ditz of the family could have the capacity to come up with a style like this for her but instead, it was Lola. In her eyes, it was like perfection. She would never plan on changing her style anytime soon, the moment she laid her sights on the doll once again.

Although, she thought to herself as for what happened earlier in the day. There was no way she was willing to let sweet little Lola get away with what she has done, especially being buried under about maybe six feet of american soil. She had to devise a plan. The determination of getting even with people would soon overcome her. In her mind, she would definitely deserve it.

"But, I'm not willing to let Lola slide for taking you away from me and burying me as I was unconscious. I'll get her back eventually, possibly later on in the night."

She hopped up in her bed before she laid down peacefully.

"Sigh," she uttered. "Good night... my precious. I'll find a way to deliver my understandable retribution to Lola. Just wait."

* * *

 **~The End?~**


End file.
